A quote from Michael Reiterer, the European Union's ambassador to Bern, 20 January 2008

It would be bad if Switzerland wants to talk only about issues that are in its own interests and not about the concerns of the EU.

A quote from the Economist’s blog, 21 Januari 2008

A highlight of the [European Year of Intercultural Dialogue] involves national projects from each of the 27 member countries of the EU, examining linguistic and cultural diversity. Oddly, DPA has noticed, there are 29 of these projects. Why 29? It seems that 26 member nations each contributed one project each. And the last, Belgium, contributed three, entirely separate projects: one from the French-speaking community of Belgium, one from Flemish Dutch-speaking Belgium, and even one from the tiny German-speaking minority that lives in its own enclave in the east of Belgium.

Gérard Pince, economist and partner of Claude Reichman in the Révolution Bleue movement, has posted a long critique of HALDE (High Authority in the Fight Against Discrimination and For Equality), a government sponsored "civil rights" organization that came into being in December 2004. Its function is to track down all cases of homophobia, discrimination in the workplace, discrimination in hiring, gender discrimination, etc...

Headed by Louis Schweitzer, former CEO of Renault, HALDE is a tool of the thought police, the extremist Left, the immigrants and immigrationists, and it seeks total control through threats of law suits. HALDE at one time sought judicial powers but was defeated in its efforts by the French legislators. Notwithstanding that defeat it continues to act as if it were a high court, and not merely a high consultative "authority":

From our correspondents Elaib Harvey, Michael Huntsman and Tiberge
 
IRELAND
 
Despite following Harvey's law of Euroscepticism (derived from comments from Hannan), which can be formulated as,

Despite what a politician may say in opposition; there are no eurosceptics in government

the news that Friday's vote by the Irish Green party has resulted in the Party not expecting loyalty to the coalition government has got to be a good thing. Hitherto the only party which has opposed the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty has been Sinn Fein.

A quote from Samantha Singson in the C-Fam Friday Fax, 17 January 2008

In the latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights, Jakob Cornides of the European Commission finds that nations have naively “handed over too much power to self-styled ‘human rights experts’” which is seriously damaging, perhaps even destroying, the credibility of the concept of human rights. [...]

Man is a territorial animal. What canines mark by lifting a leg is in our case a border. Whatever is enclosed by it we call a country. We also like to think that we are secure once our proclaimed border gets international recognition. Our border also reassures us when we reckon that the land it fences off might not rightfully be ours. Posturing in search of security can go further. If insecure, we can erect a wall, such as the Chinese one to keep baddies – such as my ancestors – out. A nastier mutation is the one the Communists erected across Berlin. It completed their Iron Curtain, stretching, as Churchill put it, from “Stettin to the Adriatic”.

Until the Treaty of Lisbon, better known as the Constitution of the European Union, actually comes into force, the new post of President of the Council (President of the United States of Europe -- POTUSE), a two-and-a-half year position which may be renewed once, does not exist. Yet, with the process of ratification scarcely under way across Europe, horses are being trained for the race.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s speeches on religion, last month in Rome and last Monday in Saudi Arabia, fuel a lot of controversy. In his Rome speech the French president defended the notion of a “positive laïcité,” and recognized the importance of religion in the daily lives of men who continue to hope and to aspire to a transcendent meaning of life. In Saudi Arabia he hailed Islam as “one of the greatest and most beautiful civilisations the world has ever known” and said that France and Saudi Arabia “share the same objectives of the politics of civilization.”

Spot the Difference.

Last week the Austrian politician Susanne Winter caused an Alpine storm with her controversial statement that the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was “a child molester” who had married a six-year-old girl and “a warlord” who had written the Koran during “epileptic fits.” The politician, a member of the Austrian Freedom Party FPÖ, an anti-immigration party which is in opposition, added that Islam is “a totalitarian system of domination that should be cast back to its birthplace on the other side of the Mediterranean.”

A quote from The Daily Mail, 17 January 2008

[The British Government has] adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism. In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing “anti-Islamic activity”. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam.